Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Kohlrabi Krazy!

I picked up a batch of kohlrabi at the farmer's market on Saturday, and though I'd heard of it, I'd never eaten it ... until tonight. Kohlrabi's not much in the looks department with it's weird tentacle-ish leaves and bulbous root. It's like some kind of bizarre alien crop. See for yourself:

I sliced the bulb and chopped up the leaves for my Local Kohlrabi and Bok Choy Stir-Fry tonight:

And it's actually pretty tasty. Well, at least the bulb is tasty...a little like cabbage with a hint of turnip flavor. But the leaves are very bitter. Probably the most bitter green I've ever eaten.

Once seasoned with soy sauce (and yes, I know that's not local, but I consider soy sauce a seasoning ... and I'm making exceptions for seasonings), the bitter taste was masked. I also tossed in local baby bok choy, squash, carrots, Farm Soy tofu, and garlic (from Granny's garden). Served with Riceland brown rice, it really fulfilled my Chinese food cravings....now if I only could find some local chocolate...

Nice to know what kohlrabi tastes like and what I can do with it. I'm probably going to get some via my CSA this year and after seeing that picture, I would have likely gotten home and spent a long time trying to figure out what on earth I'm supposed to do with something like that!

I've been hearing about kohlrabi more and more lately! It's a great idea to throw it in a stir-fry, which looks delicious, by the way. Cabbage is yummy, so I think I'd like kohlrabi too. Good luck finding local chocolate -- that's one of those things along with bananas, mangoes, and coffee that I love to buy but I know it's far from being local. And thanks for the nice comment! :) It's odd we haven't crossed paths in the blogging world before!